Rachel Ellektra

Bookmark

Rachel Ellektra. Musician, song-writer, producer, remixer, sound engineer, DJ and much more besides. She’s written music for and with artists like Steve Strange, Angie Brown, Billie Ray Martin and Joy Malcolm, produced for labels like Sony Music and Neo Records and has been recommended by the likes of Danny Tenaglia, Redanka and Eddie Gordon. Multi-instrumentalist and multi-genre producer, she is almost impossible to ‘pigeon-hole’. So who is she and how did it all begin?…

Rachel started out as a musician at just 5 years old playing keyboard, violin and guitar and had already been lead guitarist in 2 rock bands playing tracks by Hendrix, Cream and Led Zepplin by the time the dance music bug bit her at the tender age of 15. She began DJ’ing and progressed quickly to taking up her first residency within 6 months of getting her first set of decks. It was early in her DJ career that she first met Grant Nelson (or ‘The Wishdokta’ as he was known in 1992). Combined with her music background and DJ’ing skills, Grant inspired her to get into making dance music having challenged her to produce a tune!

With borrowed and blagged equipment, Rachel soon had the basis of a small studio set up at home. Soon she was putting demos together and sending them out to labels including to Grant hoping that someone would pick them up. His attention was captured by one of Rachel’s tracks entitled ‘Ultracore’. She headed to London and with Grant’s help and experience she polished the production and it saw release via FX Promotions/Boogie Beats Records. This led to her co-writing and producing ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’ with Grant for Nice ‘n’ Ripe which went out under the slightly quirky artist name of The Dangerous Brothers.

Rachel continued spinning music at increasingly bigger events having the honour of playing alongside names like Carl Cox, Judge Jules and Louis Gaston (now one half of the Streetlife DJ’s). She also kept on with the tracks and when Grant took time out to head off travelling she started to work with other labels.

At the age of 18 she started her own label Larger Than Life Records which continued the sound she had developed from her time at Nice ‘n’ Ripe and went on to attract attention from the likes of Dreem Team, Tuff Jams and MJ Cole. She also started to branch into funky house and eventually started getting interest from majors such as BMG but sadly the licensing feel through leaving Rachel more determined to rise higher!

Having done a short spell at Amato International (in a joint project with Tim Bran of Dreadzone fame) she started increasingly remixing other artists. She hit lucky when friend Louis Gaston (Streetlife DJ's) suggested she send her demos to one of the biggest labels of the time Neo Records. MD Eddie Gordon liked her sound and started pushing remix work her way, which led to her drifting towards tribal house. This gained her the attention of everyone from Paul Oakenfold to Danny Tenaglia with Danny even recommending her to people for remix work such as Sara Parker, with whom Rachel remains friends to this day.

In 2001 Rachel returned to her funky house sound. Her cunning mash-up of David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ with DSK’s ‘What Would We Do’ got tongues wagging and dance floors moving. Aczess’ cheekily titled ‘Do What We Would picked up the attention of many a big name DJ with the likes of Judge Jules, Brandon Block and Norman Cook caning it in Ibiza that summer and went on to get signed to Sony’s dance off-shoot INCredible. The track went on to be a massive club smash topping many well-known dance charts and making top 5 in several others.

It seemed as if Rachel was well on the up but sadly at that point she was forced to take a long period of time out due to medical reasons. A few years passed before she was ready to fully return to music making but when she did it was with full force!

In April 2008 Rachel's label Axis Trax was born (www.axistrax.com). It was initially a label to push out Rachel’s own musical doodles but it fast developed into a magnet for fabulous, undiscovered (and more recently well-established) dance artists. The label soon attracted a string of A-list supporters and celebrated it’s 1st birthday with a big bash at Ministry of Sound, London. Month on month Axis Trax grew and so did Rachel’s reputation as a producer/remixer.

In the past 12 months her remixes and tracks have received BBC Radio 1 support and airplay and she has hit 6 different top 10’s including various DMC charts and she’s recently hooked up with the likes of Joy Malcolm (Moby/Basement Jaxx/Incognito), Celetia Martin (Songwriter for Sugababes, Groove Armada and many more) and Angie Brown (Bizarre Inc/Fierce Angel) for some fresh collabs. She is also a member of rising electronica-pop band Detroit Starrzz (along with Steve Strange, Patrick Ruane and Andy Adamson) as well as being their exec. producer and is currently co-writing and producing their debut album.